Tag Archives: rock

After 5-10 years of hiking in Britain and New Zealand and 3-4 years of writing songs about those adventures, I have finally finished my EP ‘On Mt Luxmore’.

All the songs are about some of my favourite places in the world, from ‘Lily Tarn’ (the instrumental of my EP), which is about a spot on Loughrigg Fell, The Lake District to ‘On Mt Luxmore’, which describes the stunning Fiordland in New Zealand.

Some of these songs have sat waiting to be finished for a long time, mainly because inspiration is a fickle thing, but thankfully this summer the ideas have come thick and fast and I recently enjoyed a 12 hour day in the studio – it’s hard to stop sometimes!

I’ve also collaborated with my girlfriend Hannah Watts who provided the flute playing on ‘Lily Tarn’, so with that song expect something a little different than my normal folk/rock sound. In short expect folk, not rock on that one!

My work with Roman Fields School student Ryan (who has only just finished GCSEs) is always so exciting – he seems to never stop coming up with new ideas for songs and has already created 4 tracks this term for his demo CD. One of his top influences is the Hard Rock band Avenged Sevenfold, although his music shows inspiration from other styles too including Orchestral/Classical music and a little touch of Jazz!

Although I’ve already shared one of his songs, the other 3 are far too good to stay hidden away. So here are all of his songs so far – enjoy and please share around!

One of the most enjoyable and rewarding parts of my job is teaching at Roman Fields School in Hemel Hempstead. I currently work several times a week there with two very talented students, who both love to turn up their guitars nice and loud and play rock music – always a good thing!

One of these students, Ryan, who is currently taking his GCSEs, has been learning music production with me and has been working on a variety of hard-rock inspired compositions. This week we ‘mixed down’ his latest track and it’s seriously impressive! Please click on this link to have a listen: ‘Blinded By Reality’

Ryan has only been playing for just over 2 years and has already come such a long way in that short amount of time. Check out his solo in the track above (2:24 minutes in) to see what I mean – Steve Vai would be proud!

Please ‘like’ and/or ‘share’ his video and look out for more of his tracks on Youtube soon…

I’ve been playing around with a few song ideas in recent months and last weekend was a big and unexpected dose of inspiration. Fortunately I had time to take advantage of it and so moved into the studio and finished my track ‘On Mt Luxmore’.

It’s a song about a hike I went on in New Zealand that besides being stunningly good looking, came at a pivotal time in my life. It had such a profound and restorative effect on me, that I decided to go on many more similar adventures over the coming years. I hope you enjoy it and for those who are interested here are the lyrics:

‘On Mt Luxmore’

In a hut on the top of the worldI spent some time with my friendsIn a lawless and beautiful landWhere history belonged only to the hills

And I’ll never forget the sun settingOver the mountains of FiordlandNor the feeling that I was contentNot four walls but a timeless home

I felt that there was nothing left but the view aheadJust this, no past to trouble my soul

Stepping above the cloudsWas to leave all memories belowFresh as the emerald fireSweeping over the fellside

The untouched wildernessStripped me to my purityEarlier than I can expressWhere I have always been

I felt that there was nothing left but the view aheadJust this, no past to trouble my soul

Having been sitting on a few new songs for a while, I’m pleased to say that I’ve finally recorded them in a way that I’m happy with. The first song I’ve put online (which is in the ‘Listen’ section of this website) is called ‘The Kindness of Strangers’.

It’s written about the various hiking trips and adventures I’ve been on over the last several years and the wonderful people I’ve met along the way. I’ve been fortunate enough to trek/mountain climb in beautiful regions including New Zealand, Scotland and England’s Lake District. For me going off into wild areas like these, with only the strangers I meet as my companions, is an act of trust.

The first time I’d ever been above the clouds (without a plane) – Fiordland, New Zealand 2008.

I’m grateful that this trust has been rewarded with some great friends – the sort of people that look out for one another. Perhaps being in potentially dangerous (albeit extremely beautiful) environments, brings out the best nature of many people. The quiet beauty of such regions also has a way of putting smiles on people’s faces!

Whatever the reason, these good people are the inspiration for ‘The Kindness of Strangers’. Look out for the next song coming very soon…